The College of Management at National Taiwan Normal University was honored to host Professor Kim Hua Tan, from Nottingham University Business School, for an insightful lecture on transformative innovation in product development.

Professor Tan, a leading expert in Operations and Innovation Management, shared his extensive experience bridging industry and academia. Prior to joining Nottingham University, Professor Tan was a researcher at the Centre for Strategy and Performance, University of Cambridge. His extensive professional background encompasses lean management, operations strategy, decision making, and supply chain risk management.

During the lecture, Professor Tan discussed how businesses can reimagine commoditised products into high-value innovations using strategic frameworks and radial innovation models. Drawing from real-world case studies and his acclaimed book, Winning Decisions: Translating Business Strategy into Action Plans, he illustrated how companies can remain competitive through data-driven strategy, intellectual property protection, and market repositioning.

In this conversation, Professor Tan used two real-world business cases—“the spirit level” and “the customs lock”—to illustrate how action research be implemented. He shared his research journey to demonstrate how practical involvement in innovation projects can be further developed into management theory.

In discussing innovative business models, Professor Tan introduced the metaphor of “rocket launch,” suggesting that in the process of transforming product value, a company can drive market competitiveness by gradually shedding lower-value components through layers of innovation—much like a rocket discards its stages during ascent. While competitors are still in the imitation phase, the company can consolidate its innovation advantage through the protection of intellectual property rights.

His academic work has been widely recognized, appearing in prestigious journals such as the Journal of Operations Management, Decision Sciences, and the European Journal of Operational Research.

Professor Tan’s lecture provided attendees with practical strategies and a renewed vision for innovation in today’s dynamic business landscape.